“This is a non-profit suborbital space endeavor, based entirely on sponsors and volunteers.
Our mission is to launch a human being into space. We are working fulltime to develop a series of suborbital space vehicles – designed to pave the way for manned space flight on a micro size spacecraft. Two rocket vehicles are under development. A small unmanned sounding rocket, named Hybrid Atmospheric Test Vehicle or HATV and a larger booster rocket named Hybrid Exo Atmospheric Transporter or HEAT, designed to carry a micro spacecraft into a suborbital trajectory in space.”

13 Responses to “Worlds most Powerful Private Rocket”

massive! but not very accurate, the burn rate varies alot, the burn is everything else than static and so must be the thrust. maybe it needs some rethinking, especially concerning the nozzle and the array and form of the propellant.

Hi. I have been reading a bit about theese guys on a danish engineering site.. there was a problem during test, with their solid part of the rocket booster, which didn’t hold up quite as good as they hoped, so they are trying to fix that at the moment and are plannning another fullscale test.

They’ve got a lot to learn about reentry – the clear dome is apparently the leading surface during reentry and should disintegrate almost immediately – also the pilot is going to be descending in a head-down attitude which may render him unconscious. If the reentry is going to be “feet first”, they’ll need to find a way to dependably eject the lower heat shield so the drogue can deploy (whipping the pilot around to a head-down attitude as the chute opens).

@Inventorjack
yes that’s true for complex rocket engines like the space shuttle glider. Simple solid stage rockets do not ajdust the vector of thrus (except maybe the IRIS-T and the new AIM-9x Sidewinder air to air missiles – but these are very complex systems) and certainly the burn rate of solid propellants can not be varied. Once ignited they just.. well.. burn to death 🙂

“They’ve got a lot to learn about reentry – the clear dome is apparently the leading surface during reentry and should disintegrate almost immediately – also the pilot is going to be descending in a head-down attitude which may render him unconscious. If the reentry is going to be “feet first”, they’ll need to find a way to dependably eject the lower heat shield so the drogue can deploy (whipping the pilot around to a head-down attitude as the chute opens).”

MadScott, it´s a suborbital flight, heat will probably not be a problem. The shuttle will never leave the atmosphere. Aerodynamic heating starts to become a problem in very high speeds, like mach 1.5+. Look close at the “sequence drawing”, or fig 4. The shuttle will touchdown with the astronauts feets down, although the parachute is stored in the rear.

uumm… just curious….
can’t the rocket be made a lil lighter, taken to the edge of atmosphere using balloons(helium or whatever) and then launched?
That could save some money and be simple to construct???